I. Nelson Rose: “If Washington DC Online Poker Works, Other States Will Follow”

Respected gambling attorney I. Nelson Rose is currently working with the Washington DC Lottery to bring ticket vending machines to the District and, as such, he is intimately connected to those implementing the first ever legalized online poker venue in the US.

The DC Lottery is overseeing that process as well.  Online poker was permitted back in March when the Council amended a pending proposed budget to include online gaming.  Blackjack and other games of chance will also be introduced as part of the Washington DC initiative without the reliance of a substantial player pool.

But Rose questions whether there will be enough of a player pool to sustain the new platform.  The state capital, after all, only has a population of just over 600,000.

Rose notes that millions of additional people visit the city and will be able to play in some 10 to 12 hot spots spread throughout DC during the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., which he acknowledges is not the typical time period when people tend to play Internet poker. 

The stakes will be low, he confirmed, probably limiting players to $250 deposits a week.

All of these elements suggest the DC experiment will meet a fairly sudden death.  On the other hand, should it work, the states will most certainly want all-in.

- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher